The Death Of Innocence
by ObiWanJadenobi
Summary: Maggie had to do what nobody had ever dreamed would have to happen. Not even in their worst nightmares. She had had to kill an innocent.
1. The Death Of An Innocent

All Maggie could think about was how cold the night was as her skin tingled with each icy gust of the wind, there was an eerie chill in it that made her heart sink into her gut like something bad was going to happen. She hooked her thumbs into the worn holes in the wrists of her cardigan sleeves and wrapped her arms around her slender waist, her hands idly rubbing against her goose pimpled sides as a last attempt to grasp onto any remnants of warmth.

"Fuck it's cold."

Maggie bitterly complained to herself as yet another shiver caused her to shudder violently. She leant back against the oak tree behind her, her shotgun rested up against the nature-worn bark just as she was. She must have paced around the same ten by ten circle of camp her and Glenn had set up a million and one times but she still couldn't sit still for longer than ten seconds, she couldn't, not with Rick on the warpath and a heavily beaten Glenn sleeping not a snores distance away. She had to keep him safe; he was, after all, all she had left now. This thought alone caused a pained grimace to contort her delicate features into one of fear addled misery, it had been over three years since Hershel had Beth had been murdered and to this day it still made a lump rise in the back of her throat and her eyes brim over with the sadness she had bottled up for so long now. She had never been able to just let it all go, to actually _cry _like she needed to. She had always had to be strong.

"Snap out of it!"

Maggie snapped at herself internally. Now was not the time to cry into the already damp ground, she needed to stay on her toes and be _ready_for the attack that she knew was coming. She could understand _why_ Rick and the others had cast her out of the group, she could understand why even Glenn looked at her with a hurt glint in his eye; everybody had loved Judith and it had only been a mere three days since Maggie had taken her shotgun and unloaded a bullet in the three year old infants cranium.

The weather had been just as bleak _that_day but maybe not quite as chilly. Judith had been playing in the confines of the garden of what they had thought was a secure area when the walker had torn out her tiny abdomen with its blood stained ivories after forcing itself through the brambled bushes for it's next meal. Carl had left the baby alone for only a minute in the dewy grass to grab the plate of food Carol was holding out to him from the open kitchen window when it had happened, Maggie dismally reminisced, she had been helping Rick clean the guns at the dining room table when she heard the screams and gunshots. It was Ricks harrowing sobs that haunted her, well, that and what had happened next. It was what had had to be done – when people, even family, got bitten you had to aim for the brain and kill them before they bled out and turned. Even in retrospect Maggie knew she would still pull the trigger. Even recollecting the way the toddlers brain matter had splattered the shabby leather of her boots and the way all time seemed to have stopped as what she had done had sunk in to her and the rest of the group. She still new she had to kill Judith. _There was no saving her. _

Glenn had had to throw himself in front of Maggie to stop Rick slaughtering her right there and then with Michonnes machete. The way his eyes lingered on hers, his sights locked on the dainty brunette like it was instinctual to drive a blade through her heart and leave her to die. It was clear to Maggie that he wanted her dead. It was clear to _everybody _that Rick wanted to tear her apart limb by limb and strangle her with her lower intestine. It was clear to the whole group, but it most clear to Glenn who turned to Maggie with an anguished grimace.

"Run! You run and don't you stop, okay? I can't lose you!"

Glenn had yelled at Maggie as his hands gave her a violent jolt to knock her out of the shock that possessed her every nerve. She tore her watery sights from her husband and she ran. She ran as fast as humanly possible, even when she could hear Glenns screams carrying like birdsong in a summers breeze through the woods she ran for her life through. Now, she fought the overpowering instinct to turn around and save him. She had too. Maggie knew that if she went back now Glenns beating would have been a futile gesture. A pointless attempt of giving her a head start.

Eventually, he had found his way to a tear-stained ex farm-girl quivering with unsolicited fear and wrapped his muscular arms around her crushing him to her in a vice like grip.

"I-I'm sorry.."

She had stuttered into his already grubby, checked shirt. Glenn could feel the moisture of her tears dampening the flesh of his chest but he didn't care. _His___Maggie was safe. She was cradled to him and she would be _okay_ if he had to kill every single person himself. His calloused palms caressed her back as he rubbed soothing circles in an attempt to stop her crying. Even in these circumstances Maggie crying worked as his Kryptonite, it punched him right in the heart each time her exhausted frame shook with sorrow in his hold.

"It's gonna be okay, Maggs. I promise, okay?"

His hands moved to cradle her face in his palms, his thumbs idly brushing her tears away despite the onslaught of the next wave of them trickling over the backs of his hands. His voice cracked with pain addled misery as he carried on trying to put his wife at ease.

"It's gonna be okay."

All they could do now was wait. Either for the attack of their once friends, the cold and lack of food to diminish the last of their hope or the walkers to shred their insides with their moulding, blade-like nails. They were the enemy now. They were next on the list to die. They were the ones fighting for survival in a bitter world riddled with death as blood stained the hands of every living soul left standing on the planet but _Glenn_ was the reason Maggie stood exhausted and shivering against that tree. He was what she was fighting for now.

_He was all she had left. _


	2. Always

"Nearly done?"

Glenn fought back a laugh and quipped a brow as the tip of his wife's tongue poked between her front teeth in concentration. She had been sat on their makeshift bedroom floor in the middle of an abandoned office building for about twenty minutes trying to pick out the remnants of gravel and muck from his wounds with the rustiest looking tweezers he had ever seen. Maggie answered his question with a narrow eyed glare and a sharp jab to his thigh and he couldn't fight it any more, he laughed.

"For the love of our marriage Glenn Rhee, you better sit still, or these damn tweezers will be shoved somewhere even the walkers wont go!"

Maggie snapped as she tried her hardest to feign disdain at her injured spouse but couldn't help but laugh as she caught sight of the cheeky glint in his eye. God, she loved him. She really did. She absent-mindedly mused to herself with a dimpled smile creasing the apples of her weather worn cheeks as she shifted to kneel between his legs. Her palms rested against either side of his face with such a genteel nature it was like she was trying not to break him and in a way she was, it had been at least a month since he had gotten his beating from the others and he was _still _black, blue and blood stained from the bottom of his blistered feet to the top of his achy skull with his messy, tousled hair matted with the filth of their mangy travels to safety. She could still see how he tried not to wince each time she touched him. She brushed the tip of her nose against his and the dipped her head to steal a kiss.

"Don't look at me like that."

Maggie huffed in her usual stubborn, country drawl against Glenns dry lips as he once again beat her concentration with his usual charm.

"I love you."

He mumbled back and pressed his lips against hers stealing a kiss of his own. A crimson hue crept over Maggies face as it always did when he said that and she pursed her lips to fight the instinctual need to smile, her fingertips brushing the stray tresses of hair from her hazel eyeline.

"I love you, most."

She stuck her tongue out and flashed him a playful wink as she pushed herself up to her feet with a groan. She did, after all, love him most. Maggie thought as she busied herself fixing themselves some over-expired beans over the camp fire she had set up on the floor, it was a surprise that the place hadn't set alight the amount of mould that gave the building the musty smell her and Glenn had now grown used to.

She couldn't tell Glenn but she was worried, it wasn't like Rick to stay idle for so long when there was revenge to be sought, especially for his children, his _family_. She hadn't slept, not properly, not for a long time. She couldn't afford to be dreaming of a happily ever after when they struck. She had to keep one eye open for the brutality that would surely ensue soon.. but when? Rick couldn't keep them waiting forever, Glenn and her both new that Daryl must have tracked them to their exact whereabouts by now even with their over cautious vigilance.

_What were they waiting for? _

Maggies lower lip threaded between her teeth and her brow furrowed, her shoulders slumping as she got lost in the macabre line of thought she had forced her way into. That's when his arms snaked around her slender midriff and his cheek pressed to hers, he knew, he always did; Glenn had always had a way of knowing exactly what was bouncing around her brain. Even when she tried her utmost to keep it hidden from him.

"Everything. Is. Going. To. Be. Okay."

He enunciated every syllable, it didn't matter how many times he had repeated himself, he must have told her a thousand times and she still didn't believe him and he didn't think she ever would. He grasped her hands lithely in his and twirled her under his arm so she was facing him and his hand could rest against the curve if her hip as a laugh he hadn't heard in _so _long escaped passed the confines of her lips. He hooked his smallest finger around hers and tried his best to look sullen.

"I, Glenn Rhees, husband of the _beautiful _Maggie Rhees promi – "

He stopped abruptly and corrected himself with raised a brow aimed at her, his gaze never once faltering from the magnetism of hers.

"No.. I _swear_ that everything is going to be perfectly fine. There is not a thing I wouldn't do to keep you safe. I will sacrifice an arm.. Maybe a leg.. "

Glenns nose scrunched in thought as he dragged her tightly to him, his chin rested atop her tousled hair as he continued in a quieter tone.

"Maybe even an eye.. _Anything _to keep you safe. For better and for worse."

He ended his speech with another kiss and Maggies eyes brimmed over with moisture, she nestled her dampened face against the crook of his neck her arms wrapping tightly around him. She had never loved anybody as much as she loved this man. It would always be the two of them. Glenn and her.

_No matter what. _

The bang that echoed around the room was deafening, the glass from the window ricochetting from the grubby floor, the bullet from wall to wall and then a second before they could even recoil from the first one. Something was wrong. Glenn's body drooped in her hold and a wet warmth was flooding through the cotton of her vest. The last thing she remembered before she dropped to her knees and applied pressure to Glenns gunshot wound was the viscous glower from Carl aimed at her from the opposite building through the window. Glenn was spluttering, his eyes wet as he choked back pained sobs his eyes still widened with shock as it sunk in that he had been shot.

"You're not leaving me!"

Maggie screamed as she tore the bottom off of her shirt and tied it securely around the top of Glenns bicep, anything to stop the bleeding. Anything to keep him alive. _Anything. _She would do anything to keep him here with her. She _needed _to stop the bleeding. _She couldn't lose him too._

"No, no, no, you stop that. Open your eyes. You're gonna be okay. You've got to be okay."

Maggie spoke softly, her voice was hoarse with sorrow as her heart crumbled in her chest. She knew that no matter what she would stay right here by his side to make sure _he _was okay, just like he had promised her the briefest moments ago because she didn't know if she could go on living another death filled day without him. She _couldn't _do it without him.

It was them against the world. _Always. _


End file.
